


Discharged

by Mari_who



Series: Homecoming Triptych [3]
Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22171111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_who/pseuds/Mari_who
Summary: Discharge (verb) -  to release or allow to go;  to dismiss someone from employment;  to meet the demands of a responsibility; to be freed from a burden;  to cause to pour forth.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Lore Olympus)
Series: Homecoming Triptych [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596082
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	Discharged

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to "Climate Change in the Underworld".

After the first few times, it became clear that trying to count the weeks (days, hours, minutes) only made him crazy. And then he made everyone else crazy. The dogs grew snappish and clingy; employees skittered nervously under the oppressive, obsessive atmosphere; Hekate ran low on sleep and patience.

Coffee sales, at least, were fantastic.

So he threw himself into the work. For six months the Underworld became a wonder of joyless efficiency, a gleaming steel machine of justice. Only the thought of her kept his words and his judgements from falling too harshly.

There were, now, those he thought of as friends. A new thing among the other new and unexpected things she added to his life. And they helped, they did; but even their quiet and understanding company only helped a little.

He was missing a hand, an eye; something quietly essential had vanished and proved the breadth of its entwinement in his life and work and realm by its absense.

He wrote her letters, though the agreement forbade sending them. Jealous Demeter claimed her daughter's all, while she could get it. He kept them in a sandalwood box. When she came home, before reading them, she would press the thick, soft paper to her face, and inhale.

And then, one day, without fail, somewhere far away in the realm at the very edges of his perception, the earth would open just a bit like a mouth awaiting a kiss; and King Hades would rush to the roof of Tower One eager as a boy.

She flew to him in a burst of light and sound that split the cloud cover like a blade.

The first time, she had flung herself straight into his arms, barely slowing enough to keep them both from tumbling off the roof. Now a small garden cushioned her landing, soft mosses under bare feet, and she settled like a glorious moth before him. 

He raised his hands palm-out to his sweet queen, and she to him, and for a heartbeat they did not touch; only eyes and hearts together in glad harmony; then their fingers entwined, and then their mouths, and the King and Queen were one again, and all their Kingdom rejoiced in the rain.


End file.
